Britain’s Sky News emphasized the plummier aspects of Bob Stefanowski’s resume — trustee of London’s venerable Victoria and Albert Museum, visiting professor at Oxford, “top investment banker” — in reporting his arrival in late 2014 as the new boss of a decidedly down-market business: Making payday loans in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. Stefanowski, a GOP candidate for governor, is happy to talk about his time in the payday loan business. His briefer tenure as a Democrat? Not so much.
2018 campaign
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Disclosures show a wealth gap between Glassman and Hayes
WASHINGTON – Jahana Hayes is at least $115,000 in debt because of student loans, while her Democratic rival for the 5th District congressional seat, Mary Glassman, has at least $1.2 million in assets, some jointly with her husband.
That was some of the financial information the candidates filed with the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives.
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For Joe Ganim, the first question is the hardest at Democratic debate
FAIRFIELD — Try as he might, Joseph P. Ganim could not provoke Ned Lamont into an argument Thursday, failing to draw the Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner into any exchange capable of altering the dynamics of a race that never stray far from one question: Can Ganim, a convicted extortionist, be a credible statewide candidate?
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DeLauro, Larson hold Capitol Hill fundraiser for Glassman
WASHINGTON – Reps. Rosa DeLauro and John Larson hosted a fundraiser on Capitol Hill for Mary Glassman, the state Democratic party’s endorsed candidate for the 5th District congressional seat, cementing establishment support for the former Simsbury first-selectman.
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Erin Stewart, Eva Bermudez Zimmerman win public financing
Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman and Republican Erin Stewart, both 31-year-old women challenging their party’s convention-endorsed candidates for lieutenant governor, cleared a financial hurdle Wednesday by winning approval of public-financing grants.
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A bare-knuckle GOP debate about character, taxes — and reality
FAIRFIELD — A question about eliminating the income tax sparked a protracted exchange of charges, countercharges and insults Tuesday between the two Republican gubernatorial contenders with the least political experience and biggest television advertising budgets: businessmen David Stemerman of Greenwich and Bob Stefanowski of Madison.
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Ganim preaches party unity, Lamont campaign nonplussed
BRIDGEPORT — On a waterfront crowded with stories of disappointment and promise, some dating back to his first tenure in city hall here in the 1990s, Mayor Joseph P. Ganim jumped on the back of a pickup truck Monday to accept the endorsement by four trade unions of a campaign that is testing the notion of whether Connecticut is ready to elect an ex-con as governor.
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Republican candidates take swing at labor
A proposal Thursday by Republican gubernatorial candidate David Stemerman to cut the ranks of state employees, privatize state services and force employees and retirees to accept smaller pensions is the latest sign of the Connecticut Republican Party’s comfort in engaging public-sector unions in open warfare.
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Democratic candidates vie for crowd approval during Hartford forum
About 100 people came to the Hartford Public Library to hear the gubernatorial contenders, Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont and Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, and lieutenant governor candidates, Susan Bysiewicz and Eva Bermudez Zimmerman, answer questions regarding education, immigration, policing, marijuana, and at times, even their perceived moral turpitude.
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Stemerman on offensive, says it’s time to show differences
FAIRFIELD — On and off stage Wednesday night, the Republican gubernatorial field turned on Bob Stefanowski, reinforcing a narrative his opponents are promoting in public forums and new advertising: GOP primary voters cannot trust a man who enrolled as Democrat in 2016 and did not vote for Donald J. Trump — or anyone else — for president.
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Stemerman ad attacks Stefanowski for recent switch to GOP
Bob Stefanowski’s failure to vote for more than a decade and his recent history as a Democrat before he launched his gubernatorial campaign last year as a Republican were targeted in a negative ad released Wednesday morning by the campaign of a deep-pocketed rival who was a Democrat more than a decade ago, David Stemerman.
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The careful dance of Susan Bysiewicz’s primary campaign
EAST HARTFORD — The carefully calibrated campaign of Susan Bysiewicz was on display Monday on a third-floor balcony overlooking the Connecticut River. A half-dozen elected officials sang the praises of Bysiewicz, studiously avoiding criticism or even mention of the young labor organizer opposing her in a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
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Connecticut Democrats lose their gubernatorial rainmaker
Without an incumbent governor seeking re-election, individual contributions to the Democratic Party are down 58 percent from four years ago, when Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was a candidate seeking every possible advantage in a tough fight for a second term. The numbers are a reflection of one of the oldest and most enduring dynamics in politics: Even in an era of so-called clean elections in Connecticut, when state contractors are barred from contributing to directly to state campaigns, money will find its way to power.
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GOP gubernatorial field shows a more combative side
UNCASVILLE — On a cabaret stage Thursday night, the five Republican candidates for governor shed the reticence that has blurred differences and personalities in the long slog to next month’s GOP primary, prodded by a radio talk-show host intent on producing 90 minutes of engaging programming.
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Lamont’s first ad: ‘So, I turned 64 this year…’
Ned Lamont’s opening television commercial is a casual, almost jaunty conversation with the camera as the presumptive Democratic nominee for governor drives a Chevy Equinox through a middle-class suburb of Hartford. His initial buy puts him on every network affiliate.
